Today we’d like to introduce you to Darcy Harris.
Darcy, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
The strength and passion of my story are drawn from my parent’s entrepreneurial spirit. Before I was born, my father was paralyzed in a logging accident from a fallen tree while my mother was pregnant with me. I guess you could say I was born to be self-sufficient and a survivor. I’ve often wondered if my father would have chosen to be self-employed if he hadn’t been hurt, would I have still chosen to be an entrepreneur or just work for someone else. My father showed me that even though you’ve been knocked down in life, it’s never too late to try something new and never feel because you don’t know something that you can’t learn a new trade to better your life. He had to learn a new trade and how to be self-sufficient. Growing up in a small town in Florida, I didn’t see a lot of inspirations in interior design, thank God for my very stylish and creative mother who loves gardening, sewing and home decor magazines. As a teen, I would rip out pages of design and fashion inspirations and plaster them all over my bedroom wall, and constantly rearrange the furniture in my bedroom. Fast forward to my college days, my friends would come over to my apartment and would say to me “Darcy, you can make anything look comfy and cozy”! I guess you could say that was the catalyst for my pursuit of happiness in the world of Interior Design. I’d worked in fashion retail shops throughout college but never really journeyed into the furniture world until much later in my twenties. In the late Eighties, I moved to Atlanta and still dabbled in fashion until a store called Storehouse came calling. That was my first big break in honing in on my God-given skills of furniture placement and my true passion for designing a space. I worked with that company for several years before I moved on to Pottery Barn at Lenox Square Mall.
After working with Pottery Barn, I decided it was time to go for broke, and I headed for the Big Apple (New York City)! I didn’t know anyone there, but I had a job (PB transferred me to their SoHo store), but I said to myself, “You can do and be anything you want if you are determined to make a change.” New York is a place where either you love, or you hate it, I LOVED it, but it wasn’t always a walk in the park. I met amazing friends and made great contacts in the design world too. I worked for a few furniture stores (PB & BR Home) until a woman walked into my department at Banana Republic Home and changed my life. She was an architect at a very prestigious firm downtown in Tribecca, and she asked me if I could come in for an interview for a position in their sample room of the firm. It was uphill from that point on. I was blown away with how much people will spend to design their personal spaces. I knew right then that my niche would be Luxury Interior Design from that point on for my own design company!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I was living in New York for several years when 911 hit, and that was another changing catalyst of my life. I begin to question myself if I wanted to still live in NY. I landed a job working for a high-end interior designer as his design assistant, and this is where I saw a lot of things that I didn’t want to do in my firm. It was a tough time financially and emotionally working with this guy. He would make a lot of promises to his clients about their orders and deadlines, and I was left to pick up the pieces. His faults with his clients lead them to hire me to finish their project. That was my first big break on an upscale design project, and that gave me the strength to start my own business “The VIP Room Design Studio” back in 2002 after taking design class at The School of Visual Arts.
DARCY HARRIS DESIGN – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
When I left New York back in 2004, I moved back to Atlanta because I wanted to be closer to my family and help my sister with my great-nephew, whose mother had passed away the year before. Going through 911, up and down with jobs in NY wasn’t cutting it anymore- I needed my family support system in my life. As you get older, things start to become clearer and what’s more important to you. I started working for other furniture stores in Atlanta the first couple of years and one place, in particular, was a modern store located in a live work space in one of the new condominiums in Midtown. I had been doing small projects on the side here and there, struggling to make sense of why I wasn’t getting bigger projects. That was very frustrating to me, but I still would not give up on my dream of completely working only for myself. So I would still work my day job, but I would still hustle and go to design events and set my stakes higher with each job I landed. One day a customer came in while I was working and asked if I could help him pick out furniture for his new condo upstairs from the furniture store. I sold this guy $10k in furniture, and he loved working with me so much that he referred me to a friend in another condo, I was so excited about the sell, that I called my boss and the first thing he asked me was “Is he a Rapper?”. I was so turned off by that and other things about this company, I decided to leave that company and work solely for myself. I took a leap of faith and told myself to remember what Daddy said, “You can do or be anything you want if you want it bad enough!”
The VIP Room Design Studio was branded to be a very Luxury Lifestyle Design Firm. My style has always been curated with modern touches but has made my clients feel like it was their sanctuary. My signature style is that it will have color and a sense of fashion elements that stand out in each project. I do have an eye for details, and that to me, is what sets me apart from other designers. I’m known for my sense of Style and Modern Luxe feel to everything I do. Even though the economy was so bad in 2008 when real estate and housing was so bad, I still clung to my entrepreneurial roots to weather the storm with projects here and there. Two years later in 2010, I was asked if I’d like to host an event at ADAC (Atlanta Decorative Arts Center), so I created the very first Luxury Lifestyle Design event called “Access Granted” which I hosted once a month for a year with different luxe vendors inside furniture showrooms in the evenings. This was a major accomplishment back then because I was the only African American who had ever done an event that was supported by ADAC on a monthly bases. It was a jumpstart to many other lifestyle events I created “A Taste of Luxe” and “Bold Visionary Honoree” to honor small businesses. My story has always been to help showcase others in small businesses because I grew up with parents that were entrepreneurs. We can’t all be featured in magazines and in the spotlight, so by creating platforms to do so, I feel I’m honoring my father’s legacy.
In 2017 I decided it was time to rebrand my company as Darcy Harris Design, the motto is still the same, but the direction has changed and evolved with taking my business more international and designing Turnkey Airbnb’s and working more with real estate investors.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
As my business has evolved, so has my life and how I define success. To be in an ever-evolving industry, I take pride in knowing what I want and how I want to tell my narrative of my life in this business. Success to me is surrounding myself with family, friends, and colleagues who get me and what I stand for. In an age of social media and fakeness, you need those things to ground you and never let you go under when times are tough, and you feel like giving up. If there’s one major thing I look out for to keep me successful in business is to stay true to myself, never let them see you sweat!
What’s coming in 2020 for Darcy Harris Design, I’m launching an online home decor website (www.nyourspaceboutique.com) to sell modern and vintage products for the home. A Podcast and YouTube channel on Interior Design & Home called “N’ Your SPACE” and taking on more projects when I travel internationally. Lookout DHD will be working with you very soon.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.darcyharrisdesign.com
- Phone: Office: 404-955-8548
- Email: darcy@darcyharrisdesign.com
- Instagram: darcyharrisdesign
- Facebook: darcyharrisdesign
- Twitter: darcyharrisshop
Image Credit:
All images were taken by me. Darcy Harris
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